


unluck

by nonbinarywithaknife (littleboxes)



Series: dimension 20 [65]
Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Campaign 01 Season 01: Fantasy High Freshman Year (Dimension 20), Campaign 01 Season 02: Fantasy High Sophomore Year (Dimension 20), Child Death, Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, Implied Possession, Implied religious trauma, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Minor Canonical Character(s), Minor Character Death, Murder, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Resurrection, Temporary Character Death, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:46:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25920808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/pseuds/nonbinarywithaknife
Summary: the bad kids go ham (or: i wanted to write a self indulgent dark timeline villain bad kids au that doesn't really make any sense, so i did.)
Relationships: Riz Gukgak & Kalina
Series: dimension 20 [65]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706107
Comments: 39
Kudos: 88





	1. shadowcat's apprentice

**Author's Note:**

> this entire au exists solely for the aesthetic. no canon no dnd rules no timelines no sense only vibes.  
> 'but that's wildly out of character!' 'that doesn't fit the canon timeline!' 'this doesn't make any sense!' yes. but consider: it's Cool.  
> there's no update schedule (obv) and this isn't an expanded universe or anything just me being cheesy with evil tropes <3  
> also this is gonna get dark so mind the tags- they'll get updated with each chapter. if you need anything tagged that i missed, just leave a comment or message me @nonbinarywithaknife on tumblr :)  
> [riz's playlist](https://nonbinarywithaknife.tumblr.com/post/626544803375611905/id-a-mood-board-with-four-images-the-bottomhref=)
> 
> [au playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1m9diGHqxY4gmqFaQ2mizs?si=xw1M3tWRSCuCI2t6L4Q-ywhref=)

Here are the facts: 

The first year of Riz Gukgak’s highschool career, he made no friends and almost no impression on anyone who might have known him.

At the end of his freshman year of high school, when Riz Gukgak was fourteen years old, Vice Principal Goldenhoard was revealed to be the Emperor of the Red Wastes, Kalvaxus. 

He was found dead in the gym, and no one knows who killed him.

Riz Gukgak disappeared in the summer before his sophomore year.

Riz Gukgak has never been found. 

Here is what everyone knows:

The summer that Riz Gukgak disappeared, the first people were murdered. 

A Harvestmen cultist, who was only unmasked after his bloodstained apartment was searched. A corrupt politician who had to be identified by his teeth. A journalist suspected of falsifying his stories who had his brain splattered against the wall. 

All of them reported to have been acting paranoid in the days before their deaths. 

All of them were found in rooms locked from the inside, with locked and unbroken windows.

None of the murders have ever been solved. 

Here is what happened:

When Riz Gukgak is fourteen and two months old, his babysitter, Penny Luckstone, goes missing. When he is fourteen and three months old and no closer to solving her case, Riz Gukgak sees the face of his Aunt Kalina on their TV screen. (Their TV broke within a week of buying it.)

His Aunt Kalina asks him if he wants to find Penny (he does), if he trusts her (he does), if he can keep a secret (he can.)

His Aunt Kalina starts to teach him.

Riz Gukgak goes to school and he doesn’t bother handing out the business cards in his briefcase because he’s got his Aunt Kalina to help him with the case, now, and clues are more important than friends anyway. 

He spends his days learning how to wield a dagger in rogue class (useless) and his nights learning how to make the shadows more than just a cloak, but a second skin (useful.)

His freshman year passes by as he spends his days sneaking and searching and there is a fight in the cafeteria at one point but Riz is on a roll and he’s getting closer to the owner of the palimpsests and he heard the student who died got revived anyway, and he’s getting better at becoming a shadow. His mom looks more tired than usual, and he tells himself he’ll take a break to reassure her. 

Then he uncovers a clue, and he promises himself he’ll take a break later.

He’s beginning to prefer the dark places to the light ones. It’s easier, to listen to conversations when he can lean into a corner and become one with the darkness and one day his Aunt Kalina shows him how to travel through the shadows and it is halfway through the school year and Riz has made no friends and more progress on his case than he could have imagined and his mom is worried about him but she’s always worried about him. 

He knows they agreed on four hours of sleep minimum, but Riz is halfway through his first year of high school, and he realizes he doesn’t get tired, anymore.

Riz learns about KVX bank and he learns about the shipwreck and he learns about _the shipwreck_ and he comes to a realization. Riz, however, is nearing the end of freshman year and he’s more shadow than person and he’s beginning to think maybe his mom has a point, but it’s getting harder to care about anything other than his case, and when he thinks about things like worry it’s with more of a curious detachment than anything else. 

Thanks to Kalina he’s learned a lot more about keeping secrets and the case isn’t over, yet. The year isn’t over, yet. So he keeps searching. And he keeps learning. And the worries are pushed to the side.

There’s a scroll and a prophecy and Riz feels the clues fall into place and prom is happening tonight and Kalvaxus killed his dad. And the king and queen are being crowned tonight.

If the king and queen are crowned Kalvaxus becomes whole again, but. 

If there is no king to crown, the prophecy becomes a lot harder to complete. If there’s no queen to crown, the prophecy becomes impossible to complete.

The decision is easy to make, once Riz realizes that.

Dayne Blade is standing in a spotlight and it’s very, very easy for Riz to step into his shadow and press his arquebus to the back of his neck.

(It’s loud. And messy. Penelope Everpetal screams.) (Then her shadow moves, and she stops screaming, and the crowds’ screams get louder.) (The students run, and Goldenhoard stays. Riz smiles at his Aunt, and she smiles back.)

(Vice Principal Goldenhoard is easy to kill. Kalvaxus is harder, but you can’t burn what you can’t see, and Riz is more shadow than person, these days.)

(It’s a matter of time, more than anything else. Especially with his Aunt helping him.)

It’s after there’s a golden dragon lying bloody on the gym floor that he sees his Aunt Kalina standing next to him in his shiny red reflection. His eyes are drawn to the fangs displayed in her smile, and she says, _you really have come so far._

Riz says, _you killed my dad_.

Kalina says, _no, the person who killed your dad is painting the walls right now_.

Riz says, _it’s your fault he’s dead_.

Kalina says, _I really am sorry about this, kid. But you know how it is_.

Riz does know how it is. Riz knows he’s never seen his Aunt Kalina anywhere but reflections and mirrors and screens, and he knows that sometimes if he stands in bright enough sunlight, and looks at his hand hard enough, he can see the ground through it. Riz knows there’s a secret office in his apartment that belonged to his dad and he knows his dad’s partner’s codename was Shadowcat. 

Riz knows a lot of things. He doesn’t know a lot more. His Aunt Kalina tries to carve him out of his own body and take his place. 

He carves her out and takes her place instead. It is not, arguably, a win. It is, however, useful. He’s only just started on this case, after all.


	2. cleric of the nightmare king

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CHECK THE TAGS, THEY HAVE BEEN UPDATED  
> this chapter's for tyler who said (1) nice thing and reminded me to fuckign edit the complete chapter thats been sitting in my drafts this whole time. oops. next chapter will be either fig or fabian, though it isn't written yet

_I heard that when Kristen Applebees was resurrected for the first time, darkness blacked out the sun for_ hours _._

_No way, She got resurrected by Aguefort the first time, remember? It was totally normal. It wasn’t until the second time stuff got weird._

_No, you’re both wrong, She didn’t die until she left school, everyone knows that. Besides, there’s no way the sun blacked out, it would’ve been on the crystalnet._

_What does any of that matter, anyway? And you_ know _we’re not supposed to say Her name!_

_What, like She’ll hear it?_

_You know the stories! She answers prayers whether you’re praying or not, and do you want to draw Her here?_

_Of course not, but that’s just silly._

_Dude, magic is real, what are you_ doing _?_

_Okay fine, but I only said it once-_

_That doesn’t matter, not to things like Her-_

_Uh. Guys? Is it just me or does the sky seem darker than it was a minute ago?_

Kristen Applebees dies when she’s fourteen on the first day of highschool. She dies trapped and alone in a cafeteria with monsters that mimic the divinity she worships, and they laugh even as they tear her apart. 

In the seconds it takes for Arthur Aguefort to become aware of the problem, teleport to the problem, and take care of the problem, Kristen Applebees is wheezing in confusion on the floor, covered in wounds that are slowly oozing blood, and technically speaking, alive. 

_In the office of Arthur Aguefort there is a crown made of darkness and shadow and old, old iron, that knows where it belongs and knows that that is not here, and it has known this for a very long time._

_The crown sits and waits and waits and waits and then the waiting stops._

_Something happens in the school and the magic calls out not the same but like attracts like and the crown that was never asleep wakes up._

_The soul of Helio’s chosen begins to ascend._

_The crown, were it possessed of a mouth, or anything resembling the human emotion of joy, might have smiled maliciously. Lacking either of those things, however, it settles for calling on the magic of its creation and wrapping itself around the soul._

_It doesn’t take much to wither the golden light away, not when the crown finds a foothold in the shame-laced questions not yet freed._

_In the office of Arthur Aguefort, the Crown of the Nightmare King loses the malevolent shine of evil that hangs upon it. The black, ever-present mist that lies heavy on the shoulders of anyone who strays too close evaporates, and all that is left is a wrought-iron crown in a style that went out of fashion several dozen decades ago._

_The nightmares catch a ride on the resurrective magic that grabs ahold of the little lost soul and are brought back to the Material Plane right along with it._

Arthur claps his hands and compliments her on her hardiness, and tells her she’ll get the hang of dying. It’s always the hardest the first time, after all!

Kristen feels colder than she’s ever felt, and it feels like the warm, corn-scented light of Helio that used to call her heart home has been ripped out and replaced with icy tendrils that wrap around her insides like a choking vine, and the idea of dying again makes her shake with fear.

Arthur Aguefort teleports away to get the nurse, and Kristen Applebees is left to wait in a slowly growing pool of her own blood until she remembers she has spells left. 

(Alone, she dies quickly.) 

When she casts her last _cure wounds_ , the magic that appears isn’t the familiar corn husk yellow she’s grown to expect, but a blue so dark it’s almost black, and it’s _freezing_ , and Kristen feels cold and wrong and hollowed out and exposed. She doesn’t reach for her magic again. 

The nurse comes bustling in and wraps her in a blanket and patches her up and her parents are called and as they drive her home, sending her worried glances and muttering about how _I knew that school was no good, didn’t I say it, you did, you did, I’m not sending her back there, I know_ , Kristen comes to the realization that Helio has forsaken her. It’s terrifying and confusing and Kristen doesn’t understand why she can still feel magic close enough to grasp even as a tiny kernel of her heart that had whispered doubts and questions is relieved.

The next day Kristen feels fine. Sure, there are scars on her chest and emotionally she feels cold and scared but physically she’s fine and her mom sits her down at the table and tells her she’s just worried, is all, about this school, and _you died on the very first day!_ but when she brings up Sun Peak, Kristen insists she wants to stay at Aguefort. Not because she wants to, but because she knows if she goes to Sun Peak they’ll _know_ Helio has forsaken her. 

Every time she looks at the cornhusk tapestries on the wall or the patches on her parents’ armor or the altar in her room, she feels like she’s going to throw up, but if she just stares at the blank wall next to them she’s fine and the school’s fine and Kristen’s _fine_ , and her mom frowns and tuts and lets dad drive her to school.

_Kristen is standing in a forest and it’s dark and her hand is cold. She looks down and it isn’t her hand can’t be her hand because the bones glint white even though there is no moonlight shining down to reflect onto them and her fingers curl and clack against each other and she screams and it is silent and dust layers her throat bones lying on the ground she looks down at herself the trees are getting thicker and her head is heavy and there is whispering and it’s getting louder and louder and louder-_

Kristen wakes up.

“... _worried_ about her… doesn’t even take her bible with… called me and said she’s consistently late to... not eating… her morning prayers _…_ always a sweet girl… do something...”

_The crown is heavy on her head heavy heavy heavy she looks down at her feet except she can’t see them, the crown is heavy on her head and her head is heavy on her shoulders she is the sky she is the clouds she blinks and the stars wink out she turns her head and the sun moves and the forest that trapped her for so long is crushed as she steps forward, finally free-_

Kristen wakes up.

“ ...worried hon, but... know it’s her senior year… set up a meeting with Mr Aguefort...”

_The wind is whistling through the trees the trees are so close it’s claustrophobic vines tangling wind whistling through the trees through her bones glinting an empty sky everything is cold her head is heavy the whispers bring her dreams she is the wind and the cold and she sees them all, they sleep and she crawls in, the dreams the dreams the dreams she is so empty their minds so open her head is heavy-_

“Kristen, hon, breakfast is ready! Better hurry, we don’t want to be late!” 

Kristen wakes up.

_Heavy heavy heavy she’s so empty so cold the dreams are so close reach out a hand the bones clatter-_

“I know you’re feeling under the weather today sweetheart but don’t you have that quiz in algebra?”

Kristen wakes up.

_I am the sky the bones the wind the crown vines snap roots creak_ **_wake up_** **-**

“Kristen? Kristen!”

_Kristen wakes up._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [kristen's playlist](https://nonbinarywithaknife.tumblr.com/post/634718638206779392/nonbinarywithaknife-id-a-mood-board-with-five) / [au playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1m9diGHqxY4gmqFaQ2mizs) / my tumblr is @nonbinarywithaknife


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